La Montre Extraordinaire La Rose

04.13.12

After its 2007 launch at the Venice International Film Festival, La Montre Extraordinaire La Rose is blossoming this year in a sparkling version lighting up the wrist with over 14 carats of diamonds. Its delicate curves are inspired by the 19th century, and its finely relief-worked bloom sculpted in white gold is entirely covered with precious stones accentuating the finesse and the lifelike motion of the layered petals.

Born from the expert fingers of genuine artists, this Haute Joaillerie model weds beauty and precision thanks to the most complex of all gem-setting techniques: snow setting. Within the workshops of the Manufacture, gem-setting is a discipline exercised as an art in its own right. Not only do they master all the customary gestures involved in their craft, but the Jaeger-LeCoultre gem-setters have themselves developed procedures in order to meet specific aesthetic demands. Invented by Jaeger-LeCoultre, snow setting calls upon all the artisan’s expertise in order to achieve this voluptuous, frosted effect that is truly unique in its kind. With the model itself as the only point of reference, the craftsman’s work is gradually revealed as the closely nestled stones progressively carpet the entire metal surface.

In addition to the complexity of the task and the time required to perform it, the prior selection of the diamonds also calls for considerable expertise: the smallest diameters must be able to merge seamlessly into the most daring shapes – as in this particular instance where the petals provide no flat surface whatsoever. The rose is covered with a total of 1,420 diamonds. Working with an extremely broad palette of individually cut and adjusted stones, the master gem-setter fits them closely side by side, playing with the varying diameters, and little by little this fine workmanship entirely covers the white gold of the case and dial. The latter is demurely swept over by a pair of hands and punctuated by pink sapphires symbolising the precious and transcendent nature of time. Finally, such extraordinary gem-setting is matched by an exceptional mechanism: the manually-wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 846 which lies hidden at the heart of this sparkling floral creation.